FRONTPAGE Lian Li Launches A4-H2O in Collaboration with Dan Cases

[Overclockers.com]

Today, Lian Li launched the A4-H2O m-ITX chassis in collaboration with DAN cases. This small form factor case measures only 11 liters but can house a 240 mm liquid cooler and a triple slot GPU of up to 322 mm long. Pre-ordering starts today and is available in either black or silver. A PCIe 3.0 or PCIe 4.0 riser cable is included with the purchase. The U.S. MSRP for the PCIe 3.0 version is $129.99 and the PCIe 4.0 version is $164.99. Global pricing varies slightly. Below is Lian Li's official press release with additional details and links.

Click here to read more!

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I'm loving these small mITX cases that support big coolers and big GPUs coming out lately. Might be getting close to time to replace my Hadron.

 

[Blaylock]

Agreed. I've never been a fan of the Super towers, even when having 5 ODDs was the norm. With the rising popularity of M.2, I'm wondering if or when we will ever see our first HDD bay/SSD tray-less chassis.

 

[EarthDog]

Good question. If I had to guess, I'd say not for a while. 2.5" SSDs just recently were the norm. PCIe-based M.2 is still relatively pricey /GB. While there are SATA-based M.2 modules, most motherboards have one, maybe two, sockets that can run SATA M.2.

There's also warm/cold storage needs which at a $/GB aspect HDDs own hands down. That said, you could build a NAS or something too and move that off the PC.

Also, who runs 5 optical drives? I had two (a reader and a burner), but 5? Wowzas!

 

[freakdiablo]

Honestly, NVMe drives are dropping in price fairly quickly. A budget 500gb 3.0 x4 drive is in the $50-60 range. Seems like even the larger OEMs are going the NVMe route with their low to mid range office units - at least that's the sense I got last time I was bored in Costco and took a spin through the PC section.

There could be some sort of a market now for a fully bay-less case for those that want to go a similar route, just a basic desktop office build or an HTPC that streams from a NAS.

 

[EarthDog]

'Mini PCs'. Things like the Gigabyte Brix fit that bill and, IIRC is only M.2.

 

[freakdiablo]

Don't get me started on those little NUCs. Grabbed an Asus PN41 over this past cyber Monday, it's reminding me why I hate Asus

 

[Woomack]

As far as the new ITX case looks nice then I feel like I've seen almost the same multiple times already. It's like correcting the same design for a couple of years ... and somehow every ITX case this type is missing something, or is slightly too small, or has problems with airflow what causes the graphics card is noisy, or can't install AIO ... always something is missing. In the end these small PCs look amazing on photos but are not always great in daily usage. Almost every ITX case that I had required hard mods ... and I actually modded almost every ITX case that I had (the list is quite long). Only Jonsbo A10 left without mods but it has problems with the PCIe riser and I don't want to spend $130 only for a riser.

I don't get an explanation that someone doesn't have enough space for a larger PC case. The foot is almost as large as that of small ATX towers. Small ATX towers cost less, can install cheaper ATX motherboard, can install cheaper ATX PSU, can install more standard CPU cooler, and the PC runs cooler without additional noise. So I see it like all these expensive ITX builds are for enthusiasts who like to "compress" stuff for fun. I won't deny, I like to build small PCs but the marketing around it is ridiculous.

 

[Blaylock]

Also, who runs 5 optical drives? I had two (a reader and a burner), but 5? Wowzas!

Maybe I was the only one back in the day ripping "mix tapes CDs" for all my friends and family.

EDIT: As far as the drive bays go, I could totally see the 3.5" bays starting to disappear as soon as this year. The 2.5" trays though, I agree, they will be here for a long while. They don't take up much space and manufacturers can just add holes to the back of the motherboard tray at virtually no cost to them.

 

[EarthDog]

Maybe I was the only one back in the day ripping "mix tapes CDs" for all my friends and family.

...or I just realized I've been terribly inefficient.

 

[Voodoo Rufus]

This is such a cute little case and I almost want to build a rig in one. I just watched the Optimum PC build of one and it went straight to the "nope" bin. Way too tight.

I'm all M.2 in my main rig now. Since 1-2TB NVME are pretty much at price parity with SATA, there's no point to bays in a case to me any more. My NAS takes the overage.